NextAid’s premier project is a multi-purpose center for Youth with a Vision, a South African non-profit organization that runs various programs to engage community members of all ages in changing the problems that affect their community. YWAV teenagers use creative-enterprise to teach AIDS awareness and life development. NextAid is working with ecological architect Joseph Kennedy and a team of international volunteer designers and natural builders to design and build an earth-friendly center for these teenagers and a home for an additional 50 children orphaned by AIDS. It will be a community resource center and a beacon of hope for an area affected by record HIV infection, unemployment and poverty. NextAid is also developing small scale youth-led sustainable development projects in other African countries.

NextAid was fortunate to have an Architecture for Humanity Design Fellow, Chris Harnish, work on-site in Dennilton to help develop a holistic strategy for building as well as responding to day to day needs of the organization. Below is a blog of his writing that was featured in the Architectural Record online during his 9 month stay in South Africa.

Before surgery I couldn’t see anything clearly without glasses. Even worse, all outdoor activities were a strain. Needless to say I couldn’t score many points playing basketball. At work I wasn’t able to use a computer for more than an hour before I started getting head aches. This not only affected my performance but also my attitude. Now that I’ve had the surgery I finally have a full field of vision during every waking hour. Being able to walk outside with no glasses or contacts and seeing everything is amazing. I highly recommend a Cataract Surgery

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